Coinbase Partners With Mastercard to Make NFT Purchases Easier
As part of the agreement, customers of Coinbase will be now able to use Mastercard credit and debit cards to make purchases on the exchange’s upcoming NFT marketplace. The deal marks an expansion of Mastercard’s already existing partnership with Coinbase, which allows users to pay with the company's debit cards.
“Today, if you want to buy an NFT such as a digital art piece you first need to open a crypto wallet, buy crypto, then use it to purchase an NFT in an online marketplace. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are used to this process. But for most people, it's not simple, it’s not intuitive. We think it should be much easier, ” Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s executive vice president for Digital Assets and Blockchain Products, said in a blog post.
Initially announced in October 2021, Coinbase NFT platform will allow users to purchase, mint, showcase and discover non-fungible tokens on a peer-to-peer marketplace. Over 1 million people have already signed up for the Coinbase NFT marketplace waitlist.
However, the company has not provided any details as of yet on when the platform will go live. Prior to Coinbase’s October announcement, major crypto exchanges FTX and Binance have launched their own NFT marketplaces.
This is not the first time Mastercard has partnered with a crypto company. In October 2021, the payments giant announced that it’s teaming up with Bakkt to let banks and merchants in its network offer crypto-related services. The firm has also partnered with Gemini, BitPay, and Mintable and acquired CipherTrace, a cryptocurrency intelligence company. Meanwhile, rival Visa has over 60 partnerships with cryptocurrency companies including Coinbase.